Many blast maintenance problems at Chino High School

CHINO - The slow pace of physical improvements to Chino High School has prompted parents and students to criticize district administration again.

"It's not about money, it's about getting your priorities straight," said Chino High senior Lucas Taylor during public comment at last week's meeting of the Chino Valley Unified School District board.

The comments from the audience, coming before a report on repairs completed or planned in coming weeks at the school, continued a month-long campaign by parents objecting to the district's slowness in dealing with the problems. The frustration by parents even spilled over into last week's Chino City Council meeting,

District officials explained they have begun a series of improvements on the 60-year-old campus, most of which should be completed by the time students return from spring break on April 8.

Receiving the greatest criticism, however, has been the condition of the campus' metal plumbing system, which cannot be replaced in the short term. The San Bernardino County Department of Health did visit the school 10 days ago to test the water for traces of lead.

"I'm confident we'll pass," said Greg Stachura, in charge of the district's facilities.

District spokeswoman Julie Gobin said in an email that repairs have been completed at Chino High including the school's front gates, chin-up bar pole, boys locker room toilets and showers, baseball field dugout benches, lighting on baseball scoreboard, new stadium scoreboard and some new desks.

The email also detailed removal of calcium buildup on the boys locker room tiles, with additional cleaning in the boys and girls locker rooms.

"Leaking/damaged shower valves have been repaired where possible, however, these fixtures are over 50 years old and repair parts are no longer available, nor are replacement fixtures that will fit, without major demolition and remodeling of the shower stalls," the email reads.

The debate over the poor maintenance at Chino High made its way to last week's Chino council meeting, prompting school board President Sylvia Orozco to defend expenditures at some of the district's newer schools - especially a new $5 million pool at Chino Hills High paid for by the Measure M bond. In the $150 million facilities measure passed in 2002, the pool was listed among the projects to be built by Measure M funds. It was not paid for from the district's general fund.

Orozco made no excuses about the poor facility conditions at Chino High but tried to assure the City Council and the audience that work is in progress to clean up the school.

Over the years the school district has been slammed with financial issues, so much so it was forced to closed down three of its schools and lay off dozens of teachers, the district has said.

"Luckily we were able to bring them back because of Proposition 30 (increase sales tax initiative) and now that we can lift our eyes from maintaining our staff we can put them on maintaining our facilities," Orozco said.

"The school board is attempting to rectify some of the issues, and it's true some of them have been rust issues and some of them are issues that should not have gone this far and we're addressing those. "

One of the reasons why Orozco said she ran for the school board was because of poor facility conditions at her son's school, which was Anna Borba Elementary at the time.

Mayor Dennis Yates said he's been in contact with Superintendent Wayne Joseph about the progress that is being made at the school.

"We are monitoring it, and (board member) James Na is visiting the school site on a weekly basis inspecting it and work in progress," Yates said.

"We'll keep an eye on it too. We are concerned about the young people and the district has their own elected board but we have a vested interest in the children and the education of the children. We're not here to tell the school board what to do, but we can express our concerns about the deplorable conditions. "